When Yang Huan returns to the chairman stand at the Yongming Stadium from the stand where the Saints Fan Club is located, the game is about to begin.

Both sides of the game, led by the head coach, walked out of the player channel one after another.

Barcelona sent all the main players to play in this game. The new head coach Biranova inherited the tactical framework of Guardiola's era, and there was no major change overall.

Alexander O-Song, who was introduced in the transfer market this summer, and left-back Alba were both strong signings against each other.

Barcelona's starting lineup in this game was goalkeeper Valdes, with Alba, Pique, Puyol and Alves respectively, and the midfield was Iniesta, Busquets and Xavi's iron triangle combination.

The frontcourt offensive combinations are Villa, Messi and Sanchez.

Southampton is also the main force.

Goalkeeper Neuer, defense line Alaba, Xavi Martinez, Varane and Azpilicueta, the three midfielders are Modric, Tony Kroos and Vidal, and the front tridents are Neymar, Ibrahimovic and Gareth Bale.

When the players of the two teams lined up in each half, Rossel was a little surprised.

"Why is Gareth Bale still playing on the right?" asked the Barcelona president with some surprise.

When Gareth Bale was at Tottenham, he played as the left winger and became famous by breaking through Inter Milan's top right back on the left side of the Champions League, Maicon, and the world's top right defender, on the right side.

But after coming to Southampton, Bielsa placed Gareth or Bell on the right.

Judging from the results of the previous warm-up matches, Gareth Bale's effect on the right is not ideal.

"Players are used to playing on the left side, but as a left-footed player, they have more advantages in playing on the right winger, and this will make Bale more comprehensive," Yang Huan explained with a smile.

After hearing this, Rossel nodded.

Windbacks are against their feet, which is also a common phenomenon in European professional football now.

Real Madrid President Florentino, who came to participate in the International Champions League final, looked envious and jealous when he saw Modric wearing a Southampton jersey and appearing in the midfield area.

Modric is definitely the top control midfielder in the Premier League, very comprehensive.

Judging from the past few warm-up matches, he is slowly establishing a tacit understanding with his teammates.

On the contrary, Real Madrid missed Modric and Stroman, and the midfielder is still adjusting.

This also led to Real Madrid's poor performance in the International Champions League and was eliminated early.

"Is it OK to play the midfield with Modric and Tony Kroos? Will it be too thin?"

Yang Huan smiled and said nothing, but Bielsa's words couldn't help but appear in his heart.

At the beginning, some people inside the team were worried about this, believing that Modric and Tony Kroos were both technical players. Although there was Vidal in the midfield, the position was obviously ahead of schedule. In this way, how to ensure Southampton's midfield defense?

You should know that the Premier League is famous for its fast-moving whirlwind, with a strong impact. Once the midfield is not strong enough, it is easy to be defeated by the opponent as soon as it is rushed. How can the game continue?

But Bielsa gave a very affirmative attitude, and he believed that the defense of modern football has undergone a huge change from the past.

As for Barcelona's midfielder, is the combination of Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta strong enough?

It is obviously soft, and it can even be said to be soft persimmons

But how is Barcelona's defense?

I believe that all opponents who have played against Barcelona will give you a thumbs up.

So how did they do it?

Order and holistic of defense

To put it simply, relying on forming a numerical advantage in local areas to compress the activity space of opponent players.

In the battle, we do not pay attention to physical confrontation, but more of the defense is completed by blocking the opponent's ball-out route.

This orderly overall defense is much more effective than in the past individual combat.

Not only that, the advantage of equipped with technical midfielders with balanced offense and defense is that they use their brains to play football and know how to use consciousness and prediction to achieve defensive effects.

After the team completes the interception, the advantage of the technical midfielder's game awareness and reading game ability can ensure that the team completes offensive and defensive conversions in the shortest time, maximizes the counterattack effect, and even completes goals.

These are not available in traditional body-type midfielders, even top midfielders such as Vieira and Roy Keane.

But this tactic also has particularly high requirements for midfielders.

The first point is tactical execution, and you must be able to understand and implement the head coach's tactical intentions.

Also, you have to be able to run

Running is really important for modern football, especially targeted running.

It can even be said that the player's running is equivalent to the vitality of a team.

Of course, the combination of Modric and Tony Kroos is also an experiment.

If not, there is still Matic in Southampton.

Serbian midfielder is definitely one of the most top midfielders in today's football world

Just like Yaya or Toure, he is also a strange flower among the midfielders

But the tactical roles between the two are different

Yang Huan didn't say anything, and Florentino and others were also not good at saying anything, so they could only calm down and watch the game.

At the beginning of the game, Southampton still insisted on the past offensive football style.

Bielsa's team has been pushing heavily since the first minute of the game, and the three lines remained very compact.

This game was the first time Ibrahimovic met his old master again after leaving Barcelona, ​​so the Swedish center seemed very excited, especially when he saw that it was Gerald Pique in front of him, and he couldn't help but sneer.

This big mouth that once humiliated himself and Southampton on Twitter and WeChat.

Gerald Pique looked at Ibrahimovic, feeling uneasy and did not dare to be careless at all.

Seeing Ibrahimovic sneering at him again, I couldn't help feeling a little scared.

"why are you laughing?"

Ibrahimovic pointed in the sky, and the joke in his sneer became even more sensational.

Pique looked up and looked at the night sky with stars, wondering what it means?

"Wait and remember to raise your head and see what Southampton is from the stars"

Pique was stunned, what does it mean?

Southampton from the stars?

But soon, he remembered that wasn't this what he said when he humiliated Southampton two years ago?

Damn Swedes, I remember

"Hey, Gerald, be careful, attacked"

Not far away, Puyol saw Pique being distracted and immediately shouted a reminder.

Pique looked up and saw the ball passing back and forth between two Southampton midfielders, which was already over halfway through.

"Damn it, don't try to fool me into being distracted"

"I don't need those tricks to deal with you," the Swedish smiled disdainfully.

Pique couldn't help but get a little annoyed.

You guys, you know you are the world's chief center, but are you so arrogant?

Do you really think I'm a dead person?

"Wait a minute, don't cry when I score a goal over your head."

Pique is really popular and wants to score a goal from my head?

You are worthy of it?

"Gerard, don't talk to him, he is deliberately distracting you," Puyol shouted again.

Ibrahimovic smiled and looked at Puyol, "Be careful of your head, short man."

Wow, this is simply a personal attack

What Puyol hates most in his life is that others ridiculed his height

The reason is very simple, his biggest scar is his height.

He has fantasized countless times that if he was a little taller, he would definitely be the best and most perfect central defender in the world.

But, God was joking with him and gave him such a height of less than 1.8 meters, which was so miserable.

Therefore, every time he sees a tall and powerful high center forward, he feels envious and jealous, especially for Ibrahimovic, who has almost perfect center forward. This envy and jealousy is simply beyond words.

Now, someone is calling him a short man in person?

Too much

It's really unbearable for uncles and aunts

"You're dead, Ibrahimovic." Puyol immediately became angry.

Ibrahimovic still had the same sneering expression, as if he didn't take Puyol and Pique seriously at all, which made the two even more annoyed.

Suddenly, Modric drove the ball forward in the midfield, attracting Busquets' attention and distributed it to Neymar, who quickly cut in from the left. After stopping, he rubbed his right foot.
To be continued...